Wild Devil | Victory Brewing Company - Downingtown

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Notes / Commercial Description:
It’s arguable that our menacingly delicious HopDevil has always been wild. With bold German malts and whole flower American hops, this India Pale Ale is anything but prim. But add a touch of brettanomyces, the unruly beast responsible for the sharp tang and deep funk found in many Belgian ales, and our WildDevil emerges completely untamed. Floral, aromatic hops still leap from this amber ale, as a host of new fermentation flavor kicks up notes of citrus and pine. Pour yourself a glass today—if you dare.

User Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by cvstrickland:

4/5 rDev +4.7%look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

The chilled 750 ml cork-in-cage bottle opens with a hearty pop and the liquid within comes to life. As active foam rises in the bottleneck and threatens to attempt escape, I gently make the first pour into my Maredsous glass and am rewarded with a brew that is clear and polished copper-tinted amber in color with a thick ivory cap of foam atop. As the head relaxes, a fluffy belt of grainy lacing clings to the sides of the goblet. Additional pours firm up the foam cap and puff up the lacing factor quite a bit, but the nature of the foam is more 'sliding' than 'sticking'.

Starting with the first whiff of gas that escaped the cork, I've been smelling a sharp fruity funkiness even from an arm's length away. Holding the glass close at last and taking a deep whiff, I am rewarded with a note of sweet hay and an intense lemony tartness that stands out every bit as much as the pungent citrus-pine hop aromas that permeate the profile.

The taste is grounded in mildly sweet toasted malts hopped to bitter near-perfection with a potent dose of grass-infused orange peel oil. Tangy yet mild lemon-lime fruitiness is nicely accented with a steely, earthy dryness and just a dabble of caramel syrup drizzled over a muddy barnyard hog wallow. Persistent gritty drying and a lingering metallic note take command toward the finish, cleaning things up nicely as they inspire the drinker to have another quenching swallow.

The drink is light-medium in body and carbonated just right for both savoring and quaffing.

More User Reviews:

Smells more funky than hoppy, but the latter are still there, enough that Mrs. Nixon will have none of it. Starts off very herbal, bordering on spiced beer. The funkiness is there too and the sweetness I get from a lot of victory IPAs isn't. As it warms up, the herbal notes yield to pine, lemon, and cherry. Nice and smooth throughout, a solid beer.

This beer was amazing. I grabbed it on a whim, I'm partial to brett beers, especially the few CS ones that show up every now and again.
I'm going to say this right now, hop savant has nothing on this beer. This one was more balanced, and about 1/4th the price.

It was a solid appearance, nice amount of head, the aroma was mostly funk with a faint hoppy profile, the taste...a perfect balance between the funk and the hops. I'm glad I found this gem of a beer sitting innocently on the shelf.

I just hope this doesn't become super popular so it's hard to find bottles of this, probably shouldn't be writing a review about it.

Appearance – The beer pours a golden orange color with a one finger head of white foam. The head has a good level of retention, slowly fading to leave a fantastic level of streaky lace on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma of the beer is huge of funk and sourness with a strong funk of a hay like and grassy nature as well as a whole lot of sour vinegar and lemon juice. Along with these aromas comes some lighter sweet smells of tangerine and pineapple as well as a somewhat yeasty smell, overall producing a nice sour wild smell.

Taste – The taste begins a wonderful blend of sweet, malt, funk and hop. The sweet is mainly of a tangerine and light caramel nature with the malt being of a more biscuit like flavor. The funk flavors, which are only rivaled by the sweet upfront, are mainly of a grassy and hay taste, with the hop being relatively light initially, and consisting of a grapefruit taste mostly, but containing a little bit of grass as well. As the taste advances the funk grows in nature with the sweet remaining relatively constant. The funk takes on more grass and hay flavors, but also gains some yeasty and sour lemon and vinegar flavors as the taste moves to the end. As the sour and funk flavors increase, so too do the hop flavors, with more grapefruit coming to the tongue, but with quite a bit more grassy hop and some earthy and herbal flavors also coming to the tongue. In the end, with the sweet flavors still holding their ground, and with the nice blend of hop and the decent showing of funk, one is left with a very pleasant and enjoyable funked IPA flavor to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is on the average side in terms of thickness and creaminess with a carbonation level that is average to slightly above average. The medium carbonation and body are a rather nice blend for the IPA and sour flavors of the brew upholding both all while in conjunction with the sweeter and malty flavors, keeping the brew nice and easy drinking.

Overall – This is a very pleasant and flavorful wild with a good blend of IPA flavor and funk. One to seek out and try.

This was a very interesting and tasty beer to say the least.Poured into an oversized wine glass a deep amber with fluffy one finger slight off white head.Aromas were pretty much perfect and I dont say that lightly,a mix of awesome floral and citric hop,I mean just fresh and awesome.To go along with the exquisit hop aromas a slightly spiced aromas comes thru as well,liked spiced apple and clove,Flavors are what a Belgian IPA should be in my personal opinion,a mix of citric and piney hop with some spice and grilled pineapple.The mouthfeel at first was a bit rough around the edges but mellowed after a little bit.A great brew... seriously.

Appearance - This came out a nice bronze in color with a moderate head on an easy pour.

Smell - The wild yeast is bonkers here at the nose. It is a quality aroma full of funk and fungus. There's a light, leafy hop scent and maybe some lightly-toasted malts but this nose is all about that nasty funk.

Taste - The yeast comes on strong at the taste as well but the malt really picks things up and brings a wonderful, toasted flavor to this beer. The hops are still second fiddle and mostly like endive. The profile is certainly not balanced but is most enjoyable.

Mouthfeel - This is a solid medium-bodied with a surprising bitterness throughout. It seems light in the hop department but boy did it bitter-up at the end.

Drinkability - I don't know how to categorize this ale except to say that it totally kicks butt. It brings the best part of a wild ale, that yeasty funk, the bitterness of a good IPA, and the malt structure of a big Belgian. Nicely done.

Reviewed from notes on 9/18/10. Thanks to TCGoalie for sharing and zoso1967 for supplying.

A: Pours a murky orange-gold-light brown into an oversized wine glass. A khaki head started at two fingers and retains at half a finger throughout the tasting. The lacing left on the glass is frothy, but not very sticky.

S: Wild, spicy yeast, meet American hops. I get a lot of aromas from this one, including banana, peach, pear, and tangy sour sauce. On the back end of the smell are citrusy hops. There is a bit of an odd burnt plastic tang, and overall the aroma is very sugary and sweet.

T: The beginning of the sip is nicely sour from the wild yeast influence, and then a weird collision of burnt plastic and hops takes over. The finish is oddly bitter, but not clean. It takes kind of like earth and circus peanuts at the same time. The taste is curious, and I am not sure I like how the wild Belgian yeast interacts with the American hops.

M: The feel is medium upfront, but it soon becomes thin and a little watery in my mouth. The finish is not so pleasantly puckering.

D: This was an interesting beer and worth a try, but not really my cup of tea. The yeast and hop collision really left a strange and not entirely pleasant taste in my mouth. I will not have this again.

It seems as though the cork has pushed up away from the bottle. So i'm predicting craziness...Yep, it's true, have your glass ready, we've got a gushing brett bomb on our hands. Pours with a huge, airy tan head that takes a while to settle. While i'm waiting the room fills with bretty goodness. Oh, shit! I topped off the glass and now foam is proceeding to snake from the top of the bottle! Good times. Once it settles, it's actually a really nice looking amber beer with great head retention and spangled lacing.

Flavors of band-aids and white pepper sweep across the tongue mingling with sweet candied fruits and finishing with a significant piney hop finish, even after a year. There's a bubblegum taste that lingers for as long as you let it. Could be a little dryer for my tastes with this style, but the hops do a great job balancing.

The mouthfeel is quite sparkling, but not as much as I expected, considering to the gushing fiasco.

As far as i'm concerned, if you like brett, and see one of these around, try it. Very nice.

A- Wild is right! On a moderate pour, foamy head exceeded top of glass and got all over the damn place. On a more review like note the head is a two and a half inch yeasty froth with little to show its going anywhere other than where it is. Thick pillows of lacing coat the glass with vigor. Dark orange fluid with a slight haze...

S- Smell is a heavy dose of Brett. Wet blanket, sour hay and fruity vines. Some bittersweet hops are hinted in the back of the nose.

T-M- Complex and simple at the same time. Upfront is a big wild yeast hit that is almost instantly followed by hop bite. Fresh hop bitterness is evenly balanced with sour Brett making a medley of bitter sourness. Nice. Flavors are fresh green grass, Brett, lemongrass, light malt and alcohol esters. Mouthfeel is a light carbonated heated Ipa with thick funk to slowly slide down the tongue.

D- I like this one but has a lot going on for a Belgian Ipa. I love the sour funk as well as the hop bitterness... but together? A smooth mixture for testing just strange though.
(3/16/2010)
Note: Just opened a second Wild Devil and head is much more tame by an inch... must have had a little more Brett before?

My wife was kind enough to pick this up for me while she was shopping because she thought I would find it interesting. I do!

Poured our of a 1 pt. 9.4 fl. oz. bottle with a champagne cork (which was a pain in the ass but pretty), it delivered an uncontrollably large head. It was amber stained and creamy. Soft, fine bubbles with very impressive head retention and good lacing. The beer was a murky amber color. German head, Belgian color?

The nose was sophisticated, floral and Belgian yeast. There was a little hop kick and malty sourness to it too.

The taste had a slight banana. It felt like there was hoppy but the backbone was so strong that it balanced the beer to the point where it was hard to get a read on who was driving. I'd have preferred the hops to get more in the driver seat. The fruit left a tang in the mouth., mixed with more malt in the finish, it left a chewy funky aftertaste that was pleasant.

Mouth was a clean, refreshing - like a dry lager finish. Light side of medium body.

I wish this brew had gone hoppier. I thought it was tasty and refreshing but it just didn't hit the spot for me. My overall takeaway was that enjoyed trying this beer and it enhanced Victory's reputation in my mind, even if I am not going to be searching for this specific brew in future.

750ml bottle from the original bottling. Bottled Apr 22 2009. Super loud cork pop and pours into my glass a slightly hazy amber orange with a ton of carbonation creating a massive four finger head that's slow to recede. Aromas are big on hay and deep Brett funk upfront. Bright floral hops jump into the mix with crisp toasty malt and a light caramel. The Brettanomyces are the star of the show here though..very vibrant and earthy.

First sip brings smooth, lightly toasted malt with a bit of caramel along with a fusion of Brett funk and resinous, floral hops. Earthy notes with hay and a tart twang. Estery goodness as the Brett has really blossomed here. Flows down with a twist of hoppy bitterness. Finishes smooth with a lingering Brett funk. Really quite lovely.

Mouthfeel is on the light to medium side with tons of fast moving bubbles. I personally would have liked a bit less carbonation but I am guessing that the yeast just wouldn't have it that way. Overall, this is a wicked, wild, funky twist on Hop Devil and I am enjoying it thoroughly. I will have to track down another bottle or two, with the low abv it's easy to put away a 750.

In a pint glass, the beer is a hazy red/orange color with a huge, tan, meringue-like head. A pretty beer. Great aroma, too. Very floral and earthy. Expecting big things, I was a little disappointed in the taste. Not that it's bad, but it doesn't live up to the aroma. Some citrus, more pine, a lingering bitterness. Where did the earthy aroma go? Still, this was a very good beer, and I will want to drink it again.

The Brett is more apparent in the taste than the aroma. Funky gravel notes, unripe strawberries, and motheaten wool offer up a plethora of wild funkiness. Floral and citrusy hops and a minty note make up a solid IPA slanted, hop bill. Solid caramel malt backbone provides a nice balance. Finishes with a dry and herbal flourish.

Nicely done. The wildies emerge quite well in the taste here. Will probably improve with a few more months of aging.

Large bottle, caged and corked. Pours hazed, dull copper amber, under a nice looking fluffy, large medium oatmeal head, that stays around then leaves plenty of thicker lace on the glass. One sniff and the barnyard comes to the nostrils, not over done, but clearly present. Moderate funk, fruit, and then quite drying in the mid finish and finish. Love the style, love the intrigue of the addition of brett, so this one was a no brainer for me to seek out and enjoy. I was not disappointed.